Patricia Sands

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through Your Eyes

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IMG_4110What photo challenge sites do you follow? There are many choices and several I follow but WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is a fine place to begin. Along with the challenge it also offers excellent photography tips from technical and creative perspectives. Got a good idea for a challenge? Submit it here!

This is a quick shot from our balcony last week. You never know when a photo op will stop you dead in your tracks!

Do you love to take photos? If you have a challenge site to share, please leave a link in the comments. Whether you simply point and shoot or study and practice the art of photography, it’s the pleasure you get that counts.

Here are two other favourite photo challenges sites. Join in!

CBBH PHOTO CHALLENGE – at Marianne’s fabulous East of Malaga blog

WHERE’S MY BACKPACK – Weekly Travel Themes

TRAVEL THEME: GLASS

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

I love it when I can tie the travel photo theme into something I know about France. This week’s theme of “Glass” is a perfect opportunity for me to share one of my favourite villages with you.

Biot is a picturesque medieval hilltop village that’s not too high up … unless you decide to walk up from the train station as my DH once suggested (before I knew better), assuring me it was just a few minutes … 4 km later in my strappy little sandals and silk sundress, covered in sweat and puffing my way up the final 50 steps … oh wait … that’s a whole other story …

Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos

BTW, that 1565 is NOT the street address! LOL

Biot is an easy 10-minute drive from the coast and about a half-hour west of Nice. Click here to see a fab website with great photos and info. We rented a house there a few years ago for a wonderful three months filled with visits from family and friends … hmmm, many other stories …

*bringing my focus back to GLASS* – Rich in fine clay, the area around Biot has been known for its pottery since antiquity. Today, the village is renowned for its glass works, typically a clear or colored transparent glass with little bubbles. I absolutely LOVE the variety of colours! This photo just shows a small sample.

Biot glass-PSandsPhotos
Biot glass-PSandsPhotos
Biot glass-PSandsPhotos
Biot glass-PSandsPhotos

There are several glassworks down the hill around the outskirts of the village and an excellent Galerie Internationals Du Verre with world-class works of art.

Galerie Internationale Du Verre, Biot-PSandsPhotos
Galerie Internationale Du Verre, Biot-PSandsPhotos

In La Verrerie de Biot, you can see the artisans at work and a comprehensive gallery of this famous studio and its award-winning pieces is displayed in beautifully lit showcases. Attached to this is an enormous sales area with a selection of something for everyone. Be forewarned: you will leave with parcels!!!

La Verrerie de Biot-PSandsPhotos
La Verrerie de Biot-PSandsPhotos
La Verrerie de Biot-PSandsPhotos
La Verrerie de Biot-PSandsPhotos

There are several small glass-making studios, including one right on the main street where you look through an open window to watch the craftsmen work their magic.

Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos

There are many reasons to visit this historic village but, as you can see, the  glass of Biot makes it even more special.

Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos
Biot-PSandsPhotos

Do you have a fascination with the art of glass-blowing? Have you ever tried it? I am always intrigued and impressed by the tremendous effort, delicate touch, and creative talent of these artists when I have the opportunity to see them in action.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to my post about the October 2013 12-day tour of the south of France that I, along with Susan Sommers, will be leading! Join us … sorry, guys, it’s a women-only party! Only 16 spots and they are going fast.

Check out some of these excellent photos sites from photographers who aren’t quite as obsessed with France!

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2013/01/11/travel-theme-glass/

http://imagesoftheheart.wordpress.com/

http://www.richardsugden.com/blog – I LOVE his quote “The important thing is not the camera but the eye”.

http://thewanderlustgene.wordpress.com/

And for my fellow writers, I wanted to share JoAnna Penn’s latest post from The  Creative Penn. If you don’t follow her blog, I highly recommend it along with these:

 http://janefriedman.com/

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND … and yes, I do know it is Saturday and not Friday … sometimes these posts take longer to put together than my optimistic nature imagines!

Travel Photo Theme: Multiples

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Who doesn’t love digital photography? I’ve been having a lot of fun with photo challenges lately, either by going out and taking new photos or scrolling through my ridiculously enormous fairly large photo library.

It’s also a relaxing break from my obsessive addiction writing.

This week several websites I visit regularly led me, from one to another, with the same topic as the theme … which, in itself was rather appropriate.

(A simple click on any photo will enlarge it for you.)

Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multi

Candied Pears~Nice Market-PSandsPhotos
Candied Pears~Nice Market-PSandsPhotos
Venice~masks-PSandsPhotos
Venice~masks-PSandsPhotos
Herbes de Provence-PSandsPhotos
Herbes de Provence-PSandsPhotos
Alhambra windows~Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Alhambra windows~Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Spain-PSandsPhotos
Spain-PSandsPhotos
Walnuts~France-PSandsPhotos
Walnuts~France-PSandsPhotos
Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Chapeaux,France-PSandsPhotos
Chapeaux,France-PSandsPhotos
Lovers' notes,Verona,Italy-PSandsPhotos
Lovers’ notes,Verona,Italy-PSandsPhotos

This last photo captures just a small portion of the entire wall of the walkway into the garden in Verona, Italy, where people imagine Juliet called out to Romeo from her balcony. The fact that Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers are fictional does not appear to matter.

I was kind of shocked when we first saw this display but after looking at the notes and considering the motive behind them, we reconsidered … but didn’t add our own.

It’s become a tradition for people to  express their love for each other, or to ask Juliet’s spirit to help in their quest for love, and they stick the notes on the walls. (I won’t tell you how most of these notes are attached to the wall but you can read this attached article to find out.) I guess, depending on your state of mind, this could be considered littering or perhaps la passione!

Which would you choose?

Movie tip – A couple of years ago, the film “Letters To Juliet” with Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried was based on these very notes.

Take a few minutes to visit with:

Marianne in the south of Spain at her fabulous East of Malaga blog

Meg Travels, who is always off on another jaunt

Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack

to link to many more participating photo blogs like the ones below – 

http://stefanoscheda.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/travel-theme-multiples/

http://thephotoseye.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/travel-theme-multiples/

Ready, set, go!

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Get out the fireworks, noisemakers, and pots and pans or just snuggle up on the couch with the tv tuned to the Rockin’ NYE show in Times Square … *a toast to Dick Clark’s memory* … . whatever works for you!

Celebrate all the good memories of 2012, move on from the not so good if you can, and welcome 2013 with hope and optimism.images-2

I’m excited! I love to welcome in each new year and am forever grateful I have much to celebrate, like good health/a thriving family/wonderful friends/exciting plans. I hope you do too.

We also have a dear friend who is dying and will not see much more time here, let alone another year. We have spent many good hours with him and his wife through the holidays appreciating our moments together. His spirits and attitude are inspiring.

My husband’s brother and his family live in war-torn Aleppo, Syria where life is unimaginable to us right now. Amazingly, we can still talk to them on the phone most of the time but can do nothing more to help them at the moment. Nothing can get through. Each day brings fear and hardship. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Other extended family and friends are dealing with illness or difficulties. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Everyone reading this can tell similar stories and of course we all share in the pain of Newtown, Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. We marvel at the response of those whose spirits and attitudes are inspiring through it all.

Life.

This post is not meant to be a downer. I hope it is a reminder to celebrate the human spirit and to support each other and proceed together to make life better in whatever way we are able.

No matter what is being handed to us, the human spirit has a way of staying strong, seeing the positive, and working in whatever way, big or small, to remove the negative. So let’s grab on to this new year and vow to do whatever we can to make the world a better place.

Merci mille fois – thank you a thousand times, for the thoughts, the photos, the wisdom, the humour and most of all the friendship that we share in this amazing blogosphere community. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings to us all. Onward!

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